Looking forward to 2009

The CLF has grown, and to some extent matured, (though I hope we haven’t gotten too mature part of the fun is our silliness!) we’ve gone from a joke, to a making our presence known to the world of fiber arts and caused a few people to take notice. How could they not, aren’t we too cute for words?

We’ve stirred it up, shaken it up, and made people pause for thought. One of the funny realizations that happened to me personally is idea that some people held/hold of our group. Some people feel we are “militant”, or are a bit frightened by our name in fact more than one person said, “It just sounded too much like Patty Hearst to me…” That was until they got to see what we really do, and are about…

For those of you who don’t know who and what we are, we are indeed a group of committed crochet enthusiasts who want to see crochet get it’s fair share of the market, and fair share of the press. We’re tired of being lumped in with the sticks, and we want to have recognition of our craft in and of its own right. That doesn’t make us militant, it makes us proactive.

The book took up a fair amount of my energy in the past six months, and I was unable to do everything I wanted to accomplish this year in the CLF. But beyond the tangible tome of crochet goodness, I want to share our absolute greatest accomplishment…We, together as a group, have bonded, empowered and uplifted each other, spurred each other on to greater endeavors both in the virtual world and in real life. We have connected with each other in ways that defeat the ‘dog eat dog” dictum of 20th century capitalism, and are creating a burgeoning market that doesn’t dislike finances, but doesn’t leave people out in the cold either. For this I am proud, as we support each other’s work, skills, talents, we all benefit, we all get a slice of the pie. That counts for emotional support too, many of our membership have found the CLF a safe haven in a world of tempestuous upheaval and change. Making the CLF stand for more than a silly play on words and a pseudo political movement, it created a far more worthy title for our group: Crochet Liberating Friends, or Crochet Liberating the Future….